Films and TV box sets reviewed in under 200 words. Because you really just want to know if it's good.

Month: December 2013

Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) has pursued the rights to Mary Poppins from author P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson) for 20 years. Finally she agrees to fly out from London to LA to read the proposed script. She won’t sign over the rights until she’s happy. Only she is never happy. She doesn’t want it to… Read More Saving Mr Banks

Irving (Christian Bale + 20kg of fat) is no oil painting himself, but he does flog a few fakes: one of his many small-time con operations. He meets a dancer (Amy Adams), who soon becomes his partner in crime, posing as an upper-crust Brit called Sydney (bit of a giveaway, you’d think). Then they’re caught… Read More American Hustle

His driving licence having been revoked, Woody (Bruce Dern) keeps setting off on foot to Nebraska to claim the million bucks he thinks he’s won from one of those claim-your-prize flyers. His wife and sons tell him it’s just a marketing gimmick, but the taciturn, stubborn yet strangely gullible (though also borderline senile) Woody won’t… Read More Nebraska

Original title: La cage dorée Maria and José Ribeiro, originally from Portugal, have been dedicated and underappreciated workers in Paris for 30 years. She’s the concierge at an upper-crust apartment block, he’s a building site foreman. One day, José’s estranged brother dies and bequeaths them an estate and wine business in their homeland. With one… Read More The Gilded Cage

The word “fuck” forms a large percentage of the dialogue in this film. Though it also forms a large percentage of that last sentence, which probably contains more words than Robert Redford speaks on camera. This is right up there with The Artist as the perfect script for an actor who struggles to remember lines.… Read More All Is Lost